Riley 9500 Riggs Road

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62287-580-1
Verlag: First Edition Design Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 100 Seiten

Albert very much a true hillbilly who comes off suave and cool, from the Shenandoah Valley, watches Lucy as she catches the bus to and from work. Lucy herself is a beautiful woman that has never been away from home. Albert convinces Lucy one evening, to let him take her home in his cab, free of charge. Lucy, lacking any social skills except from what she has learned from her backwoods parents, quickly falls for Albert. Lucy becomes pregnant, and Albert takes a job as a caretaker in the middle of a large cemetery outside of DC, where a house is provided for his family. Now, three daughter's later, Albert and Lucy struggle to make ends meet as the girls fight between themselves, but have a bond that no one can break.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Riley, Donna

Leseproben

Chapter Seven
  There were no funerals on Monday, so Albert and his family had the day off. The girls awoke early to the smell of chicken being fried. June sat up in bed waking Mable; she crawled out from under the covers and jumped over onto Molly’s bed. Mable began to shake Molly, she lay there pretending to sleep, and then sprung up, roaring, scaring Mable causing her to scream. “I swear, you guys,” June said. “Hey, smell that, it must be picnic day, Daddy must have today off.” The girls flung the covers off and all three stampeded down the steps, Mable in the lead, dressed only in underpants. Albert sat at the table drinking his coffee. They could hear the sound of grease popping in the skillet as Lucy fried chicken. June and Molly walked into the kitchen, Mable crawled up onto her father’s lap. “Morning there, Mable. You ready to go the creek today?” Mable picked up Albert’s coffee cup, it was almost empty. Albert used four teaspoons of sugar and never stirred it up, that left a syrupy base in the bottom of his coffee cup. He always saved it for Mable. Mable picked up her father’s coffee cup and emptied it, drinking down the sweet mixture. She set the cup back down on the table and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Yep, weady.” Mable answered, smiling up at Albert. “Mable you’re somethin’ else you are.” Albert loved the wildness about his youngest daughter; he worried, also, of how she would be treated by others, especially this fall when she would have to go to school. Neither Albert nor his wife had the heart to tell Mable. It was only a month away, and they couldn’t hold off telling her much longer. Albert loaded his family in the old black panel truck that they used to haul the funeral flowers. There were two single seats in the front, and the back end was dark because the only windows were in the back doors. The floor was dirty from hauling “stuff” to and from grave sites and to the cemetery dump. Albert and Lucy sat up front, while June usually sat between the seats. Molly and Mable would ride in the back of the panel truck. Every bump or curve that Albert hit or drove around, no matter how hard he maneuvered, spilled them over. More than once Molly had to grab hold of Mable to keep her from rolling from one end of the truck to the other. Albert pulled into their same old spot. He got out and opened the back door. Molly and Mable came jumping out, as June came out the side passenger door, following Lucy. June carried the blanket that would be their table for the day and a large round thermos. Lucy carried a picnic basket. Albert carried his fishing rod and bait. Albert went first, he place his brogan boot on the bottom strand of the barbed wire and pulled the top strand up high so his family could pass through. Albert ducked under and made his way to the water. June and Lucy spread the pink and white checkered blanket out underneath a large maple tree and sat down in the shade. Molly and Mable took off to explore the creek and anything that was around it. They sat down on the creek’s edge, feet hanging over the side. “Look there Mable.” Molly pointed to a large, dry sycamore leaf that was floating down the creek. “That’s a Jap ship trying to get into friendly territory.” Molly looked down under her feet and picked up a hand sized rock and lobbed it at the enemy’s approaching ship. (Ker plop! )The rock hit dead center and the leaf sunk under the water. “Wook.” Mable said, pointing to the water. A dozen or more large leaves came floating down. “Ok, Mable girl, it is our duty to protect our country. Fire away!” They began to lob rocks at the incoming enemy until every last one of the leaves had disappeared. After having sunk the entire fleet of enemy ships, Molly began to get hungry. “Come on, let’s go back and get something to eat. You hungry?” “Yeth” Mable answered. Molly plopped down on the blanket. Mable sat down behind her. “We’re hungry Mama. Can you please feed a couple of worn out soldiers? We’ve just wiped out at least a dozen Jap battleships.” “I might be able to find you somethin’.” Lucy said, smiling. Days like these were good for the Browns. It took an awful lot to mess up one of these Sundays. Lucy pulled out a large, uncut piece of bologna. She had brought it home from the deli where she worked. She sliced off two thick pieces and put them on white bread. She handed one each to the girls and then gave them a tall plastic glass of grape Kool-Aid from the thermos. Molly sat up with her heels to her bottom; Mable watched how Molly sat and did the same. “How come bologna tastes so much better out here Mama?” Molly asked. “God makes ever thin’ better on days like this.” Lucy said, smiling and looking up at the blue sky. “Listen, when you two are finished, I want you to run this here sandwich up to your daddy, take him a beer up too, and don’t shake the darn thing up.” Lucy had cut another piece of bologna, put it between some bread and then wrapped it in wax paper. “Ok Mama” Molly answered, lying down on the blanket. Mable just did a quick nod, yes. Mable reached her hands out to take the sandwich and beer to Albert. “Mable, don’t shake your daddy’s beer, you hear me?” Lucy said, looking stern. Mable nodded her head once and took the sandwich and beer. She ran up through the tall weeds, careful not to drop the sandwich or shake the beer. There, standing beside the creek bank, was her father, one hand on his hip, the other hand held his fishing pole. If there was one thing you did not do, was make noise, ask questions, or bother Albert Jessie Brown when he was fishing. Mable walked up to her father and held up his sandwich and his can of Valley Forge beer. Albert looked down at Mable, who smiled up at him with her pink gums showing. Albert took his sandwich and beer and sat them down beside his bait can. “Thank you, Mable.” “Welcome.” Mable said smiling back. Mable sat down a little ways from Albert’s fishing spot. One thing her father did not tolerate was being bothered while he was fishing. Albert loved to fish almost as much as he loved his family. Working six to seven days a week left him very little time to go fishing. This was a true pleasure for Albert. The creek came down in gentle curves, except for the one Albert fished. It was a sharp curve and when the water was up, it bore against the bank and the water dug into the clay side and bottom, making it a deep hole in the creek. Albert knew this, he knew the fish would congregate in this deep pool; and this is what made Albert’s fishing spot special. Mable watched her father fish for a while. She got up, and walked over, and sat on the creek bank, eventually losing track of time and where she was. She watched butterflies float by on the summer’s breeze. Mable watched a Praying Mantis watch her as she watched him. Every time Mable would move the mantis would turn its head in that direction. Its front legs, with their jagged edges pulled up in a praying position. Mable thought it looked like it may pounce on her at any moment. Mable didn’t like them much. She had seen Molly hold a grasshopper in front of one and it reached out, grabbed the grasshopper from Molly’s fingers, and began quickly to chew on the grasshopper’s head. Mable wondered how big the things were that mantises ate. Something caught Mable’s eye. There was a large sycamore leaf floating down the creek. It was the Japs Molly had told her about. It was a secret enemy trying to get through friendly lines. There was only one thing to do. Mable picked up a fist-sized rock and flung it at the enemy ship. (Swoosh!!) The splash was so big that speckles of water landed on Albert’s white tee shirt. The rock landed only a few feet from Albert’s fishing line. “What in the hell you doing girl?!” Albert yelled at her. Mable sucked in her breath, realizing what she had done. She jumped up and ran through the tall thick weeds. Bugs of every sort jumped and flew trying to get out of Mable’s way. The weeds began to thin and Mable saw her mother and sister, sitting on the blanket talking. Mable was still running as fast as she could, as she dove behind her mother’s back. Lucy was jarred by the sudden impact of her youngest child slamming into her back. “Be careful, Mable, you could hurt mama!” June scolded her sister. “What have you done now, youngin?” Lucy asked Mable with a sigh in her voice. Mable peeked around her mother’s back. She looked up and saw Molly was sitting on a tree branch several feet away; she had watched the whole thing. Molly motioned for her to come to her. Mable jumped up and ran to Molly. Mable had leaves and pieces of weeds sticking to her sweaty face and body. Molly jumped down and landed in front of Mable. “Girl, what were you thinking? You’re lucky Daddy didn’t use you for fish bait. Come on let’s go wading and cool you off.” Molly led the way through the tall weeds. They...